Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards: Paul Thomas Anderson Wins for ‘One Battle After Another’
Paul Thomas Anderson has won the 78th Directors Guild of America’s top award for theatrical feature film for One Battle After Another.
His third nomination after 2007’s There Will Be Blood and 2021’s Licorice Pizza, this is Anderson’s first DGA win. Last month, Anderson won Critics Choice and the Golden Globes, and closes in on potentially his first ever Oscar win in the category. Anderson bested fellow DGA nominees Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein), Chloé Zhao (Hamnet), Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme) and Ryan Coogler (Sinners). All but del Toro are nominated for the Best Director Oscar, with Sentimental Value‘s Joachim Trier in at the Academy Awards. In the last 20 years, the DGA winner has won the Oscar 18 times.
In his acceptance speech, Anderson, as he has in his previous wins at various awards, paid tribute to late assistant director Adam Somner, who died in 2024. The DGA is the only group that not only awards the director but their team, including assistant directors, second assistant directors and more. Somner earned a posthumous win tonight, joining Anderson and Unit Production Manager Will Weiske; Second Assistant Directors Trevor Tavares, andIan Stone; Second Second Assistant Directors Dominic Pacitti and Rafael Sanz-Jimenez; and Additional Second Assistant Directors: Nuekellar Hardy, Chunning Chang, Kit Conners, Kasia Trojak, and Tyler Young.
Comedian and actor Kumail Nanjiani hosted the ceremony for the first time, which was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Nanjiani poked fun at the ongoing awards season leading up the Oscars, which are still five weeks away. “Hollywood’s biggest night — Excuse me, Vancouver, Budapest and sometimes Atlanta,” he said. Commenting on the room being filled with directors and their teams of assistant directors and unit production managers, Nanjiani continued, “It’s like if a movie was just the credits.”
In his opening remarks, his first as DGA president, Christopher Nolan said, in the face of a massive 40% drop in guild member employment, “We are the best at what we do. We are the storytellers. We are the people who have to innovate.”
Only eight times in 77 years has the DGA winner lost the Oscar. In three of those instances, the DGA winner’s film went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture (The Godfather, Chicago, Argo) and only twice–the first and the most recent–saw the opposite happen, with Oliver! and Parasite taking the Best Picture crown.
1968: Anthony Harvey for The Lion in Winter; Oscar went to Carol Reed for Oliver!
1972: Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather; Oscar went to Bob Fosse for Cabaret
1985: Steven Spielberg for The Color Purple; not nominated for the Oscar, which went to Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa
1995: Ron Howard for Apollo 13; not nominated for the Oscar, which went to Mel Gibson for Braveheart
2000: Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Oscar went to Steven Soderbergh for Traffic
2002: Rob Marshall for Chicago; Oscar went to Roman Polanski for The Pianist
2012: Ben Affleck for Argo; not nominated for the Oscar, which went to Ang Lee for Life of Pi
2019: Sam Mendes for 1917; Oscar went to Bong Joon Ho for Parasite
With the exception of the non-Oscar nominated directors, three is the magic number again when it comes to a Best Picture/Best Director split at the Oscars: Cabaret, Traffic and The Pianist.
Charlie Polinger won the First-Time Feature award for The Plague, his drama-horror story of young boys, bullying and torment, over the likes of Eva Victor with Sorry, Baby. Victor had won the lion’s share of breakthrough and first-time director kudos from critics leading into the night.
In television, The Pitt took drama series for the “6:00 P.M.” episode directed by Amanda Marsalis, in a bit of an upset over the show’s pilot episode directed by veteran TV director and show creator John Wells.
The Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award recipient was David Charles. A DGA member since 2000, David Charles’ service to the DGA began when he was elected as an Alternate for the first of his eight terms on the Western AD/SM/PA Council. He went on to serve two consecutive terms as a Council Member and three terms as the Council’s First Vice Chair. He has also served as a member of the BA/FLTTA Negotiations Committee in 2020 and 2023. He is currently co-chair of the Guild’s Reality Television Committee.
The Frank Capra Achievement Award recipient was Gregory G. McCollum. McCollum joined the DGA in 1985 as a Second AD. His service to the Guild began in 2009 when he was chosen to serve as a member of the DGA’s Commercial Negotiating Committee, a role he would go on to continue for every negotiations cycle since. He was first elected as an Alternate member of the Western AD/UPM Council in 2018 and has served in that role for seven consecutive terms. He also currently serves as the Chair of the Council’s Commercial Committee and is only the third member working in commercials to receive the Frank Capra Achievement Award.
Here is the complete list of winners of the 78th Directors Guild of America (DGA) awards.
FILM
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Unit Production Manager: Will Weiske
First Assistant Director: Adam Somner
Second Assistant Directors: Trevor Tavares, Ian Stone
Second Second Assistant Directors: Dominic Pacitti, Rafael Sanz-Jimenez
Additional Second Assistant Directors: Nuekellar Hardy, Chunning Chang, Kit Conners, Kasia Trojak, Tyler Young
Michael Apted Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature: Charlie Polinger, The Plague
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Feature: Mstyslav Chernov, 2000 Meters to Andriivka (PBS)
TELEVISION
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Drama Series: Amanda Marsalis, The Pitt (HBO Max) — “6:00 P.M.”
Unit Production Manager: Michelle Lankwarden
First Assistant Director: Eric Tignini
Second Assistant Director: Kevin Zelman
Second Second Assistant Director: Nicole Jones, Rebecca Rogers, Chloe Huckins
Additional Second Assistant Director: Michelle Akeley
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, The Studio (AppleTV+) — “The Oner”
Unit Production Manager: Shawn Dyrdahl
First Assistant Director: Donald Murphy
Second Assistant Director: Peter Dress
Second Second Assistant Director: Denise Anderson Poore
Additional Second Assistant Director: Abran Trujillo
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Limited or Anthology Series: Shannon Murphy, Dying for Sex (FX on Hulu) — “It’s Not That Serious”
Unit Production Manager: Francesca M. Mannix
First Assistant Director: Julie A. Bloom
Second Assistant Director: Findlay Ward Zotter
Second Second Assistant Director: Kristin Dombroski, Laura E. Rizer
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television: Stephen Chbosky, Nonnas (Netflix)
Unit Production Manager: Pamela Hirsch, Kara Doherty
First Assistant Director: Chris Surgent
Second Assistant Director: Takahide Kawakami
Second Second Assistant Director: Cary Lee
Location Manager: Tatiana Forster
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety Series: Liz Patrick, SNL50: The Anniversary Special (NBC)
Associate Director: Michael Mancini, Michael Poole, Laura Ouziel Mack, Janine DeVito, Amy Mancini, Dan Dome
Stage Manager: Gena Rositano, Chris Kelly, Eddie Valk, Peter Epstein, Karen Tasch Weiss, Steve Bautista, Joey Despenzero, Frank Fernandez, Doug Fogel, Jeffry Gitter, Cyndi Owgang, Elise Reaves, Niclana Tolmasoff, Leslie Williams
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Sports: Matthew Gangl, 2025 World Series — Game 7 – Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Toronto Blue Jays (Fox Sports)
Associate Director: Larry Lancaster, Aaron Stojkov, Bryan Colucci
Stage Manager: Dominick Tringali, Dan Frank
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality, Quiz or Game: Mike Sweeney, Conan O’Brien Must Go (HBO Max) — “Austria”
Associate Director: Jason Chillemi
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Series or News: Rebecca Miller, “Mr. Scorsese” (Apple TV+) — “All This Filming Isn’t Healthy”
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials: Kim Gehrig
You Can’t Win. So Win. – Nike | Wieden+Kennedy
First Assistant Director: Peter Jackson, John Mattern
Second Assistant Director: Melina Greene
Second Second Assistant Director: Chelsea Meador
I’m Not Remarkable – Apple | Client Direct
First Assistant Director: Guy Forgaard
Second Assistant Director: Amanda Johnson
Second Second Assistant Director: Michael Dudley, Clyde Broom
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards: Paul Thomas Anderson Wins for ‘One Battle After Another’ - February 7, 2026
- British Society of Cinematographers (BSC): ‘One Battle After Another’ Takes Top Award - February 7, 2026
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Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards: Paul Thomas Anderson Wins for ‘One Battle After Another’ 
British Society of Cinematographers (BSC): ‘One Battle After Another’ Takes Top Award 
Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) Winners: ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ ‘Sinners,’ ‘Train Dreams’ and More 
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